Dogs

Back before the digital age, photographs were not ubiquitous things. One had to compose the scene in the view finder, fiddle with the various camera settings, take the picture, send it off to be developed and hope for the best. My friend GA had a post recently about a person who collects vintage dog photographs.

She has selected some of her vast collection of pictures into books, and so I got several of these (I know that I said I wasn’t going to buy any more books, I guess I was lying).

And these books really are quite charming. Back when photographs were expensive and difficult to make, people went to the trouble to immortalize their dogs, because dogs are important. As I thought about it I realized that I have jillions of photos of my dogs. They are mostly of interest to me, but I keep them because they remind me of the love of my dogs.

This was the first dog I had as an adult. We got him in Louisiana, and he moved with us to North Dakota before coming here. He was laying in bed when I snapped this picture.

This picture of my next dog hangs on the refrigerator. I took it here at the house as he was resting on the landing looking cute. He was sure that his duty was to protect the house, and he did this faithfully.

I paid to have this photo of Miss P taken by a professional photographer, and it hangs in the dining room. She is wearing her floral collar that we bought for her in Hawaii’i.

This is my tiny vintage dog photo. It was taken sometime in the 1930’s, and is a bit crumpled with age. This was Joe, and that is my grandfather holding him. My mom kept this photograph, and because she liked it I have kept it too. Because I am the keeper of memories in my family and I remember these dogs.